Pages

Truth Be Told

I am currently writing a book about the Doctrine of Discovery along with Dr. Soong-Chan Rah. There is a crowdfunding campaign to support the writing process with reward levels that includes SIGNED COPIES of the book once it is released! Click here for more information.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

A More Perfect Union

If I had to translate her words into Navajo, I would say “ádin.”
Ádin
means nothing, none, zero.

I couldn't believe my ears. I was visiting Iowa in the first
week of January during an election year. Presidential candidates were crisscrossing
the state—kissing babies, shaking hands, and pleading for the vote of everyone
they met. Campaign events were taking place in high school gymnasiums,
community centers, and local businesses throughout the state. Many of the
people I met had personal stories of meeting one of the candidates, shaking
their hands, and talking about their issues. There are 99 counties in the state
of Iowa, and a few of the candidates were taking the time to stop and hold
campaign events in each and every one of them. But there I was, just a day before
the caucuses, standing in the community center and tribal offices of the
Meskwaki Settlement near Tama, Iowa, with the tribe’s executive director telling
me that not a single presidential candidate had held a campaign event in their
community.

I shouldn't have been surprised. After all I live on the
Navajo Reservation. Our reserve is nearly 26,000 square miles with about
300,000 enrolled tribal members, and I cannot recall in my lifetime a
presidential candidate visiting our reservation and campaigning directly to our
people.

But for some reason I thought Iowa, during the primary
season, would be different. There, retail politics is the norm and EVERY vote
is supposed to count. But as I learned that afternoon, that is not entirely
true. Even for tribes living in the middle of one of the most heavily
campaigned to states in our country, I learned that the Founding Fathers’
vision for this country still prevailed in 2012.

As a nation we often point to the document signed in 1776 as
the foundation of our freedoms and the declaration of our principals. We hold
up the country’s Founding Fathers as great visionaries; men who had a hope of a
world of equality. But that is a myth. A legend. Their statement, "We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." was
not a Declaration of Independence for many of the people who lived in this land.
Rather, it was a Declaration of Dominance, a change of masters,
a limitation of freedom, and for some, the foundation for genocide.For we learned a few years later, when many
of these same men penned the Constitution of the United States of America, that
"all men" did not refer to women, African slaves, or Native
Americans. These groups were specifically excluded from participation in this
grand experiment. Their wombs, their labor, and their lands would be used. But
the people, the individuals, and their communities would not be allowed to
participate.

As this country expanded, specific policies were implemented
against Native Americans such as the Indian Removal Act of 1830 which gave
legal cover for atrocities, such as the Trail of Tears for the Cherokee in 1838
and the Long Walk for the Navajo in 1864. This country wanted our land, but not
our vote. They wanted our resources, but not our voices. In fact, Native
Americans were one of the last groups to receive the right to vote.The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 granted us
citizenship and the right to vote. But, because voting is a states’ right, the
states of New Mexico and Arizona effectively barred Native Americans from
voting until 1948. (ACLU - Timeline:
Voting Rights Act)

By studying our history, learning about these policies, and
living on our reservation, I have experienced firsthand that our Founding Fathers’
vision was to create a nation where the indigenous peoples of this land would
have as little opportunity as possible to participate in or influence the
governance of this country. Out of sight and out of mind is where they wanted
us. And to that end, they were largely successful.

Even today, presidential candidates are able to campaign and
get elected without ever needing to court the Native American vote. Decisions
regarding tribal sovereignty and treaty rights have been delegated to the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, now a part of the Department of the Interior.Our country can hold a national debate on immigration
reform without soliciting input from indigenous peoples, who for over 500 years
have borne the brunt of injustices perpetrated by “undocumented immigrants.”

But for me, the last straw that demonstrated the need for
more immediate change was when I learned that on December 19, 2009 the US
government officially apologized to Native peoples without even speaking to us.
Page 45 of the 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act (H.R. 3326)
contains a buried "Apology to Native Peoples of the United States." This
non-specific, non-binding apology was never publicized, announced, or
publically read by Congress or the President.

This apology and the way it was buried demonstrated the
severity of the situation, and that even today, in the 21st Century, Native
peoples are not considered equals in this land. So I decided that I had to
respond. If my government did not have the respect to read this apology and
communicate it directly to the elders, leaders, and peoples of our Native communities,
then I would do it—honestly, respectfully, and publically.

On the third anniversary of the signing of this Act, I have
reserved space near the Reflecting Pool in front of the US Capitol.On that day, a diverse group of citizens are
coming together to publically read H.R. 3326.The appropriations portion of this bill (pages 1–45) will be read by the
Native Americans in attendance in an effort to respectfully, yet clearly,
highlight the irony of burying such important and historic words in a
Department of Defense Appropriations Act.

The apology portion of this Act (sub-section 8113) will be
translated into several native languages and be read by some of the non-native
people in attendance. This will serve as a reminder to our leaders that when an
apology is made, it should be communicated as clearly, sincerely, and respectfully
as possible to the intended audience.

I am proud to be Navajo, and I am proud to be an American. I love this country, and I love our land. I
know history cannot be changed, but I do believe the trajectory it puts us on
can be adjusted. I want to teach my children that they can read the Declaration
of Independence and the United States Constitution with pride and hope—not
because the Founding Fathers were perfect, but because they acknowledged they
were beginning a journey. They created a government where leadership was not
inherited and wrote a constitution that could be amended.

One of the reasons the swearing into office of Barack Obama
as the 44th President of the United States was such a historic event both for
our country and the world, was because as a nation we demonstrated that our
real strength is found, not in our wealth or in our military might, but in our
ability to change, to learn, and to adapt. The Founding Fathers may not have
ever envisioned that the Union they were establishing would someday elect as
its leader someone who did not look like them. But we did, and while the
transition was bumpy and the last four years have had its fair share of
turmoil, it happened and as a country we have grown.

So I am inviting you—our nation— leaders, citizens,
immigrants and Native peoples to join me on December 19, 2012, in front of the US Capitol Building and respectfully read H.R. 3326 and the apology enclosed therein. To take another
step in this journey by beginning A New Conversation in our
never ending quest to 'walk in beauty' and form a more perfect union.

2 comments:

Unreferenced comment, and a little off subject.Somewhere I read the 1924 citizenship act was foisted upon native Americans for the purpose of nullifying treaties, as an American citizen has no such power to enter into treaties, or to have honored any previous ones. That aspect has proved very successful, whereas citizenship?

Email List Sign Up

The Doctrine of Discovery- A Buried Apology and an Empty Chair
Picture a chair, an empty chair. There are dozens, even hundreds, of them sitting on the stage behind the podium. At the microphone is a Native American elder. Hurting, trembling, shaking, but standing. Full of resolve. Sharing a story of the horrors of the abuse, neglect and trauma, experienced as a young child at an Indian boarding school. In front of this elder are hundreds, even thousands, of people. Native Americans, with their heads bowed in grief, sorrow, even panic, as their own memories of similar stories are triggered.
[Continue Reading]